Heya,
Let’s have a really good week everyone.
This weeks topic is funny, it is nothing new but I was obsessed with this story last year,
I just think it is such an odd problem to have.
C’mere to me…
Hippo Heaven
Colombia…
I assume you are aware of the notorious drug lord, Pablo Escobar.
Well, when you’ve more money than you know what to do with, you build a zoo in your house and ferry animals from every corner of the earth.
Amongst some 200 imported, Escobar smuggled in 4 hippos for his personal zoo, a species that is only native to Africa.
Following his death in 1993, his empire came crashing down and his estate was dismantled.
Most of his wild animals were captured and taken to back to zoos around the world.
However, they didn’t dare touch the massive and aggressive ones, being the rhinos and hippos, which simply went free.
The rhinos quickly died out, however, not the hippos.
It turns out that Colombia is in fact Hippo Heaven…
Image - Atlas Obscura
In Africa, the hippo population is kept under control by their predators in big cats and hyenas.
Drought also kills off several hippos every year..
However, in the lush green swamps of Colombia there isn’t any such problems, it is one of the most bio diverse countries in the world.
They can wallow to their hearts content, with no shortage of food and fresh vegetation, and absolutely no predators to look out for.
Great news if you’re a hippo, but certainly not how nature intended.
The Problem:
What started as a handful in Pablo’s time, has turned into dozens of adult hippos taking up residence in the Magdalena river,
Hippos are know to be aggressive when confronted, and they can easily grow almost 2 tonnes in size and on land they can run at speeds of over 30 km/h.
More people are killed in Africa by hippos than any other wild animal, almost 500 every year.
In Colombia, they have tried to contain them using fences, walls and barbed wire, you name it, but they just knock them down or jump over and continue about their day.
Why not tranquilize them? - this is the ideal solution, but it is something that should have been done 25 years ago.
They wouldn’t even have to remove them, just sterilize the males.
However, darting and castrating a hippo is dangerous, takes a lot of time, and is very expensive, so with funding and resources they can only achieve one a year.
The hippos can multiply quicker, with 5 to 10 news hippos every year…
They have also become a tourist attraction, which is portraying them as a good thing, not the big issue that they are.
Another solution was to kill them all, as cruel as it sounds, it is the same way you remove any invasive species.
Several years ago, the Colombian army shot and killed one, and stupidly posted this picture online…
…which of course got animal rights groups got involved and sparked a national debate.
It was then made illegal to hunt hippos in Columbia.
Now they just keep multiplying, the herds have encroached on towns and are a threat to people.
Despite locals loving the idea of having them and being delighted with the little hippo tourist economy that has formed, they need to be relocated soon.
There are lots of articles online but this video by Vox Media is my favourite explanation.
Smile 😊
One of the most creative things I’ve seen,
This was an entry to a stop motion competition and naturally it won…
Photos I Saved 📷
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Guy